Allie Preston, Author at Friends of the Everglades

Rescue the River of Grass is making headlines!

As a signer of the Rescue the River of Grass petition, you’ve added your voice to the call for Florida to buy land south of Lake Okeechobee to store, clean and move more water south. Now, two new stories are bringing that vision into the spotlight — and underscoring why this moment matters. The Science Inside Climate News: ‘Crown Jewel’ of Everglades Restoration Is Too Small, Report Says We’ve been saying it for years — the shrunken-down Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir is too small to deliver all the clean water the Everglades needs at theright times, in the right quantities. And the consequences extend beyond the Everglades. A scientific report prepared by Dr. Tom Van Lent establishes the need [...]

Allie Preston2026-09-30T17:20:17-04:00October 1st, 2026|Rescue the River of Grass|

“Alligator Alcatraz” left Florida less prepared for the next storm

Two new issues related to the shuttered-but-still-causing-problems Everglades detention center in the past week: First, on the human rights front, a report from the Department of Homeland Security's internal watchdog that detainees were held in “cramped conditions” including, on some occasions, 18-square-foot metal enclosures the size of a phone booth. The DHS Office of Inspector General based its 33-page report on an unannounced inspection earlier this year, and found numerous other instances where conditions failed to live up to ICE standards. How about some answers? Seven members of Congress lashed out in a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying they had been deceived about the facility and demanding more information. Of note: They asked whether Florida Attorney General James [...]

Allie Preston2026-09-21T16:03:04-04:00September 23rd, 2026|Everglades Unfiltered, Rescue the River of Grass|

‘Rescue’ us from this Super El Niño

The late Saturday Night Live comedian Chris Farley once dressed up as “El Niño,” copping a professional wrestler vibe and daring tropical weather systems to take him on in a no-holds-barred cage match. “El Niño is coming for you, and it ain’t gonna be pretty,” Farley shouted. Forecasters are saying the same thing — albeit less colorfully — about our current El Niño, which reached “Super” El Niño status last week and could ultimately make Farley’s version look puny. What’s the deal with El Niño anyway? El Niño occurs when ocean water temperatures rise in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, disrupting tropical thunderstorms and atmospheric circulation and influencing the location and strength of the jet stream thousands of [...]

Allie Preston2026-09-21T16:03:39-04:00September 23rd, 2026|Everglades Unfiltered, Rescue the River of Grass|

The algae bloom we should be talking about

You likely haven’t heard much about blue-green algae on Lake Okeechobee this summer for one reason: It remained on Lake Okeechobee. The lake level dropped below 11 feet this summer (though it’s starting to rise now), meaning there was no danger of discharges to the northern estuaries (the Caloosahatchee, St. Lucie and Lake Worth Lagoon). But that doesn’t mean the lake’s annual algal bloom isn’t there. It’s ‘moderately’ bad In fact, during the Sept. 10 meeting of the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board, district officials talked about a “moderate” bloom on the lake. Blooms have been persistent along the northwestern shore of the lake, with “hot spots” along the southern shore. Recent testing shows a mix of [...]

Allie Preston2026-09-21T16:04:55-04:00September 23rd, 2026|Everglades Unfiltered, Rescue the River of Grass|

Two bombshells just dropped about “Alligator Alcatraz”

It’s no easy feat tracking all the ways “Alligator Alcatraz” was a total fisaco. Two new government reports add to the growing tally. The first — an audit from the Department of Homeland Security's own Office of the Inspector General — reveals the state-federal detention camp failed to comply with standards for environmental health and safety, medical care and other detention standards. The report includes haunting images from the facility, including photos of 18-square-foot metal enclosures called “calming areas” used to confine detainees. The New York Times published a front-page story about the OIG’s findings yesterday. The second report, released Friday by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, underscores the immense taxpayer burden of “Alligator Alcatraz.” It details how [...]

Allie Preston2026-09-15T19:21:50-04:00September 16th, 2026|Alligator Alcatraz, Voice of the Everglades|

We’re taking Rescue the River of Grass Town Halls on the road

The Rescue the River of Grass roadshow starts now. This month, we gathered in Stuart for the very first Rescue the River of Grass Town Hall, and the response made one thing clear — Floridians are rallying around the ultimate solution for the Everglades: Buy the land. Hosted by our Rescue partner Florida Oceanographic Society, the room was filled with people who know firsthand what’s at stake. Together, we reminisced about the years when devastating algae blooms from Lake Okeechobee harmed the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon. We acknowledged that the problem has not yet been solved. This was a crowd who understood that protecting Florida’s water, economy and way of life requires more than managing the [...]

Allie Preston2026-08-26T17:39:06-04:00August 27th, 2026|Rescue the River of Grass|

A call to protect Miami-Dade’s most endangered lands

On August 13, 2026, Friends of the Everglades joined a coalition of South Florida conservation organizations urging Miami-Dade County commissioners to restore funding for the Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program to $20 million in the FY 2026–27 budget. EEL protects more than 29,000 acres of critical wetlands, pine rocklands, hardwood hammocks and other natural areas that safeguard drinking water, reduce flooding, protect wildlife and strengthen the region’s climate resilience. The coalition warns that EEL funding has fallen dramatically in recent years, putting approved conservation acquisitions and irreplaceable ecosystems at risk. READ THE LETTER IN FULL

Allie Preston2026-08-19T16:01:09-04:00August 19th, 2026|Friends of the Everglades Statements, Hold the Line|

The state and federal government withheld the truth. We’re fighting back.

At Friends of the Everglades, we don’t just protect Florida’s water and wild places. We hold government officials accountable when they fall down on the job. That’s exactly why we’re back in court. Last Wednesday, we filed an updated lawsuit against the state and federal government in our case against “Alligator Alcatraz,” the mass detention camp the government recklessly built in the middle of the Everglades. We detailed how the state and federal defendants withheld key information from the courts last summer — delaying justice, and allowing the Everglades to be harmed for a year. The defendants misled the court by representing that Florida hadn’t applied for federal funding. They used that as an excuse to dodge compliance with the [...]

Allie Preston2026-08-18T11:39:59-04:00August 18th, 2026|Alligator Alcatraz, Voice of the Everglades|

The groundswell to Rescue the River of Grass is growing

https://youtu.be/kG9MYnqDMhs?si=NrE74fJ8XfWNaqoP Last night’s Town Hall with our Rescue the River of Grass partner Florida Oceanographic Society put the stakes and the rewards into perspective. The room was filled with people who shared visceral memories of years when the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon were plagued by devastating algae blooms from Lake Okeechobee. We were reminded of the collective fear that can take hold when the waters supporting our livelihoods and ways of life are threatened, but more than that, we were inspired by our community’s staunch belief in the solutions that exist. Rescue the River of Grass is a community-driven movement encouraging policymakers to prioritize land acquisition in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) for water storage and [...]

Allie Preston2026-08-13T15:29:06-04:00August 13th, 2026|Rescue the River of Grass, St. Lucie Estuary|

We just filed an updated lawsuit to demand accountability at “Alligator Alcatraz”

Government officials must clean up the environmentally damaging mess they made at “Alligator Alcatraz.” To make sure they do, we’re going back to court. Friends of the Everglades and our conservation partners filed an updated lawsuit today presenting new information for U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams to consider as we return to her courtroom in Miami on Friday. The new lawsuit shows that government officials withheld critical information from the court during our legal challenge, proving that Florida applied for federal funding for the detention center and that the project should have undergone federal environmental reviews. This information could have upheld the preliminary injunction granted by Judge Williams in August 2025 that halted the facility from operating. Instead, [...]

Allie Preston2026-08-12T15:30:08-04:00August 12th, 2026|Alligator Alcatraz|

About Allie Preston